Mountain lion P-32 killed while crossing the 5 Freeway

P-32, the male mountain lion kitten, sniffs at the camera. (National Park Service)

Some sad news now about a young mountain lion known as P-32 – the only male known to have successfully ventured to the north out of the Santa Monica Mountains.

He was struck and killed by a car Monday morning while trying to cross the 5 Freeway in Castaic.

P-32 had successfully crossed the 101 Freeway and three other highways in the Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley areas earlier.

Joanne Moriarty is a wildlife ecologist for the National Park Service, and inspected P-32 after his death. She told KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis that it was probably another dominant male that made him leave the area and attempt another crossing.

“Essentially they need to get out of the area where there’s other adult male mountain lions patrolling that area, because those adult lions do not want them in their territory and these young lions need to avoid the adult males,” Moriarty said.

P-32 was 21 months old. He is the 12th mountain lion killed by a driver since researchers began tagging mountain lions in 2002 to study how they survive in Los Angeles.